The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 22, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 08, 2000
Daniel E. Kuzniar, Lyons, IL (US);
Jason P. Harris, Sr., Aurora, IL (US);
Marconi Medical Systems, Inc., Highland Heights, OH (US);
Abstract
A rotation monitoring system ( ) detects the rotational speed of an anode ( ) of an x-ray tube during use. The system ( ) includes a detector ( ), which detects a pulse of secondary x-rays generated by the interaction of a stream (C) of electrons with a known defect ( ) on a surface ( ) of the anode. The detector may be position inside or outside a vacuum envelope ( ) of the x-ray tube. The stream of electrons is supplied by a secondary source ( ), separate from a main source ( ) of electrons used to generate the primary or working x-ray beam (B) of the x-ray tube. A single pulse is detected with each rotation of the anode, providing a simple method of calculation of the anode rotation speed. Preferably, a feed back loop is used to correct the rotational speed of the anode so that overheating of the anode is avoided and the useful life of the x-ray tube is extended.